Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Things I learned from my first flea-market experience

  • Bring a chair (my lovely friend's hubby gave me one to use and I was very glad of it). 
  • Always have someone around (next door stallholders if nothing else) to look after your stall while you nip off to the toilet. 
  • Bring food and drink. No point in blowing your entire profit by eating from the inevitable food stalls and chip vans.
  • Bring some kind of transparent plastic sheets to cover stuff if it starts raining (or a pavillion type thing if you have one). The cheapie plastic sheets you can get for covering furniture while painting would be good for this - I saw lots of people with them. I did think to bring rubbish bags but that mean my stuff was covered when it was raining and no-one could see anything, even though people were still walking around under umbrellas.
  • Almost as soon as I arrived to start setting up I was approached by a man asking if I had any jewellery for sale (I didn't). Then a few minutes later another one. And then another after that. I assume they're traders of some sort who do the rounds first thing hoping to snap up any bargains. Must ask someone with more experience of flea markets whether it's a good idea to deal with these guys or better to keep the stuff and sell to the general public.
  • Having a float of some change is a really good idea. I probably overdid it with 40 of notes and 45 of change but at least 20 or so will make life much easier. 
  • Decide whether your priority is to make money or to get rid of stuff. If it's the latter, just price to sell. Yes, everyone says you have to haggle but not everyone likes to and if the point is to get rid of stuff...I admit it, I'm a bit like Brian in this respect.

    • 2 comments:

      Fiona said...

      Congrats on doing the Market! It's such a great way to get rid of things and clear everything out.

      I used to do Markets quite a lot when I was at Uni. Those dealers that went round early in the morning ripped us off many times, though. We used to buy lots at auctions and they'd snap up things like books or stamp collections that we had no real idea of the value of.

      I'd set anything aside that a dealer is really interested in and find out more before you sell it privately!

      Auf Heller und Pfennig said...

      Great tips. There is a fleamarket coming up in our town next month and I would like to get rid of some stuff but I doubt we have enough to justify the fee for a table.